Thank you for reading! Have another chapter of Damie fluff :)
There was some kind of plant conference at the end of November. Jamie had been talking about it for months so she flew off to Oregon for almost two weeks to attend it. Her days were busy out there, Dani was sure, because she was up until midnight every night waiting for a call from Jamie (though it was only nine o'clock at night in Oregon). Each call, Dani could barely get a few words in over Jamie's excited retelling of everything she had learned or experienced that day. She didn't mind. Jamie rarely got this excited over things and she deserved it.
The Friday that Jamie returned home, Dani couldn't will the time to go by fast enough. Even though the flight landed at noon, Jamie was going to go home and probably sleep until Dani closed the shop and picked the kids up. But, at three, the store's doorbell jingled and Jamie sauntered into the store.
"Jamie," Dani cried. She dropped the bag of soil onto the ground and rushed to hug her wife. "I thought you weren't going to come into the store today."
Jamie perched herself up against the counter. "I wasn't, but I got home, took a shower, tried to nap. I thought about how tired you must be waiting up until midnight to talk to me everyday and figured the least I could do was come distract you at work."
"Well, I'm really happy to see you." Dani picked up the soil bag again. "I missed you."
"Missed you, too, Poppins," Jamie smiled. "How have the kids been?"
Dani laughed, "Oh, you know. They've been Miles and Flora. Can you help me?" Jamie grabbed a side of the bag and helped Dani hoist it onto a shelf. "Miles got a C on a math test so I told him no video games until you get back and we decide how to handle that. It looks like Flora can officially get her cast taken off, but she didn't want to do it without you so we scheduled it for next Tuesday."
"Right, right," Jamie nodded. She grabbed Dani by the waist and made her turn around so she couldn't keep working. "Thank you. For holding down the fort. It meant a lot to me."
"Actually," Dani bit her lip. "I'm glad you came here because I have something for you. Stay here." She kissed Jamie, just a small one, and then went around the counter. She leaned down and when she reappeared she placed something, delicately, on the countertop.
Jamie's eyebrows pressed together and she stepped closer to the counter. Her fingers just brushed over it. "Is that a moonflower?"
Dani nodded. "Yeah, I plucked it from the night of our wedding and dried it."
"You're a romantic, you know that?" Jamie said. But, Dani's face wasn't laughing. She was serious, nervous. Jamie went silent.
"I've got a problem," Dani said. She couldn't contain it much longer and a small smile pushed against her lips. "Or, rather, we've got a problem."
Jamie nodded, laughing now, remembering the script Dani was pulling from. "Oh, no."
"I," Dani sighed and looked into Jamie's eyes, her own tearfilled. "I'm pregnant."
It had happened on their first try, they were lucky for it. Some took much longer and even they thought it wouldn't happen this fast. The breath escaped Jamie's lungs and she beat back tears. Dani didn't know why she had been so nervous to tell her wife– maybe she was so excited it felt like nervous energy. Joy filled her as the words tumbled out for the first time.
"You sure?" Jamie asked.
"Yeah," Dani sniffed and nodded profusely. "Yeah, I'm sure. I've been sick almost every morning so I went to the doctor for blood work and she confirmed it."
"And you let me stand there watching you carry a bag of soil for so long." Jamie circled the counter and wrapped her arms around her wife. Dani laughed into her shoulder. They didn't pull apart for a while. Finally, Jamie stepped back to wipe her face and slid her hand into Dani's. "When are you due, do you know?"
Dani dropped her hip against the counter top. "I didn't want to do any ultrasounds without you." She squeezed Jamie's hand. "The first one is on Monday."
Jamie took a deep breath. "Okay, uh, you should probably sit down, right? I'll finish up for the day."
"Baby, I can work," Dani cried.
"Of course, but," she nodded at Dani's stomach. "You're already working, aren't you?" Jamie brought the stool around and wouldn't move until Dani sat down on it. She leaned her elbows on the counter and watched Jamie fall back into the pattern of the shop's tasks, even after two weeks off.
Through the window, Ellie noticed Jamie so she stopped by for a few minutes to say hi. They didn't share with her the news, no matter how badly they wanted to. Dani would send Jamie a look and she would receive a short shake of the head. The same exchange would pass again but with switched roles. It went on a few times and, thankfully, Ellie didn't notice. When five o'clock finally rolled around and they closed up the store, the couple elected to leave Jamie's car in the parking lot for the night and drive to pick up the kids together. During a typical week, they alternated who left the store early to get the kids from school, but since Jamie had been out of town, Mrs. Clayton took over and watched the kids at her house for a few hours.
On the way home, they stopped for Chinese food at Dani's favorite restaurant. "It's a night to celebrate," Jamie said as Dani parked. She still wasn't used to driving on the right side of the road and so the couple defaulted to Dani's driving most of the time.
"What are we celebrating?" Miles asked.
Dani and Jamie shared a look, and Dani said, "Jamie coming home, of course."
"So then why are we getting your favorite and not hers?" Flora asked. Dani inwardly groaned, that girl was very clever when she wanted to be.
"Well, my favorite is your mum and I've got her all night so I think I can make an exception," Jamie quipped.
Dani put the car in park and sent a playful hit to Jamie's arm. "Careful," she whispered. The last thing either of them wanted was to field questions about what Jamie meant by that. Miles and Flora got distracted arguing over which chicken they were going to get, though, and they took it.
That night, once Flora and Miles were safely asleep, Jamie climbed into bed beside her wife. Dani was propped up against the headboard with a book open in front of her, which Jamie promptly took from her hands as she straddled the woman. She leaned in and kissed her wife. Dani returned it, hungry. It didn't take long before Jamie's shirt was on the ground, and then Dani's shortly after.
When Dani surfaced from under the blankets, she collapsed beside Jamie, both catching their breath. "Wow," she said. "Whoever said pregnant sex is great was right."
"Oh, yeah?" Jamie rolled onto her side and stared at her wife. "How do you know it was the pregnancy hormones and not just me?" Dani rolled her eyes dramatically. The two descended into laughs and then made their way to the bathroom.
The first doctor's appointment was better than either could have hoped it would go. Dani was excited, but, as always, anxiety nipped at the back of her mind. Some of it about the baby and some of it about the doctor's reaction when she found the parents were two women. Jamie reminded her that they chose this doctor specifically because of her history working with gay women and Jamie was right. Dr. Lancaster was great.
Jamie held Dani's hand as the picture was loaded onto the computer screen. As always, it only took a few moments for Jamie to be wiping tears from her eyes. When they had first met, Dani assumed Jamie was over exaggerating when she told her she watered the grounds of Bly with her tears. That certainly was not the case and had not been the case in the three years they had spent building their lives together.
Dr. Lancaster saw no cause for concern and sent them on their way with pamphlets, recommendations, and a copy of the photo. In the car, as Dani drove off, Jamie sat in her seat and stared at the photo. She couldn't seem to take her eyes off of it and it sent a warm feeling through Dani. She took one hand off the wheel and rubbed the back of Jamie's neck.
"I love you," Dani said.
Finally, Jamie looked up from the photo and pulled Dani's hand around to kiss her knuckles. "I love you, too, Blue Eyes." She picked up Dani's purse. "We'll need to hide this from the kids. Flora's been digging around where she doesn't belong, lately."
"Yeah, we need to talk to her about that," Dani said.
"In the meantime, I say we hide it in the vegetable drawer. She'll never look there." Jamie tucked it into Dani's planner to keep it safe. "When do we tell them? End of the first trimester?"
"Oh, I was kind of thinking we could do it on Christmas," she smiled. "Since that's Flora's big ask. I know it would be kind of early–."
"No, let's do it," Jamie agreed.
So they went on the next month pretending as if they didn't have this big, exciting thing waiting to escape. Dani's morning sickness was there most every morning, but she quickly found ways to alleviate it to avoid raising suspicion among Miles and Flora. Her favorite perfume had to be moved to the back of the shelf. They stopped cooking fish and oranges were no longer packed in the kids' lunches. One a bit trickier to cope with was the smell of lavender, but Dani needed to be able to work in the shop so Jamie took it out of the inventory without Dani even asking. Jamie made a lot of quiet adjustments so that Dani didn't have to be any more uncomfortable than the morning sickness and the changes to her body already made her.
Owen came out early for Christmas. Apparently his restaurant was doing so well it was listed as one of Paris's top ten of the year. That meant his foot traffic went up and thus he needed more employees. All that to mean, he was able to take a longer period of time off. It was his first time back since the wedding in mid September so he showed up with a bit more clothes than he needed with the intention of leaving some of it there at the end of the trip.
Dani, who closed the store on the day of Owen's arrival, walked out of the garage and into the kitchen. "Owen, hi," she cried and hung her purse on the hook by the door.
"There you are," he said. He stood at the stove, apron on and towel over his shoulder, stirring a thick paste in a pot. "Jamie can vacuum down anything regardless of spice so I need you to help me decide what level the kids can handle. It's a new curry recipe."
The overwhelming smell of curry spices in the air settled around Dani and she felt a wave of nausea kick in. Owen brought a wooden spoonful of curry over to her for her to taste and the closer it got, the worse she felt. Dani clutched her stomach and tried to wave him off, but he didn't understand her gesture, and it was too late anyway. She folded over and hurled across the hardwood floor.
"Well, you could have just said so," Owen said. He was kidding, of course, and he dropped the spoon onto the island to grab a trash bag for her.
The sound brought Jamie running down the stairs. It was a familiar one and she knew what it meant by then. "Dani, you alright?"
She straightened up, wiped her mouth, and took the bag from Owen. "Yeah, I'm okay. I'm so sorry, Owen. It's not you, I promise."
"Don't worry about me," Owen said. "We'll scratch this for tonight and I'll make some soup. Tomato sound good?"
Jamie shook her head and rubbed her wife's back. "Tomatoes will only make her worse. You've got a good chicken noodle soup recipe, yeah? That usually helps her." She pushed her wife around the mess on the ground. "Go up stairs, Poppins, I'll clean up here."
On her way out, Miles and Flora joined to investigate the commotion. "Shoot. Come upstairs with me," Dani called. She hoped she caught their attention fast enough that they wouldn't get a chance to see the mess on the other side of the island counter. Miles was a sympathy puker and that's not what they needed in that moment. The smell found him before he could even see it, though, and he made a similar mess in the doorway.
"Great," Jamie muttered. "Flora, run on back to the den. We don't need you joining in on the fun, too."
She paled as well, though, and Dani prepared herself. "It's on my foot."
This time, Owen managed to maneuver a bag just in time and prevented another mess. He looked around the room as he handed the bag to the girl. "Chicken soup it is. My god, how do you ever get along without me?"
Jamie sighed and pulled her hair off her face. She was getting all too good at cleaning vomit up these days. "Right, Owen, do you mind taking them upstairs? I'll clean this up."
He pulled paper towels off the rack and used one to wipe up Flora's foot then passed some around to each of the three. Dani gratefully took hers and wiped her face as she began to walk up the stairs. She heard Owen lead the kids into their rooms where they both admitted they were feeling fine they just wanted a bath. He shut the doors to their rooms and knocked on Dani's.
"How are you feeling, Patient Zero?" He asked.
"Oh," Dani looked over her shoulder. He caught her holding a box of saltines and a bottle of water. "Fine. I'm fine. It did look really good. Maybe you can make it again sometime."
Owen nodded and made a show of looking at his watch. "How about in, uh, nine months? Give or take."
It took Dani by surprise. She didn't know why, another adult in the house would notice the things that the kids looked over. Even so, she hadn't talked about the pregnancy with anyone but Jamie yet and it was a new feeling. A good feeling, but a new one. She smiled, awkwardly. "More like seven."
"Come here," Owen said and wrapped his arms around Dani. "I'm really happy for you two. I'm going to be the godfather, right?"
Dani laughed, "You've got my vote, but you'll need to convince Jamie."
Owen disappeared downstairs a few minutes later then retrieved Dani when the mess had been cleaned, the remnants of the curry taken care of, windows open, and a few Christmas candles lit.
Jamie met her at the bottom of the stairs with a kiss. "Feeling better?"
"Yeah, a lot better," Dani said. "Thank you for cleaning up."
"Of course," Jamie said. She nodded at a waiting cup of ginger tea and Dani sat down in front of it. "The kids haven't come back downstairs yet."
Owen stopped chopping carrots. "How about Owen Jr. if it's a boy?"
"How about you get back to chopping before I chop your tongue off?" Jamie said. Then, she lowered her voice. "They don't know yet." Owen nodded in understanding and kept at his work.
The next morning, Owen sat down with Dani and made a list of what foods she could eat and which ones she couldn't. He planned the meals for the rest of his time there accordingly and met Dani with a cup of ginger tea in a thermos before she left every morning.
It was getting harder and harder to divert the questions of the children. Jamie didn't like lying to them so Dani was usually left high and dry to talk their way out of something. Once or twice, Owen swooped in with some way to distract, but Dani was happy when Christmas morning finally arrived in the Taylor-Clayton household.
Presents were all opened and wrapping paper was strewn around the room. Owen walked through and topped off everyone's mugs of hot chocolate. As he walked past Miles and Flora, he dropped two last presents in front of them.
"Oh, that's odd." He looked down at the presents. "Now, what on earth could those be?"
Flora and Miles immediately pounced on them. They tore open their respective packages and each found a shirt inside. Miles held his up so he could read the font on the front. "I'm the big brother."
"I'm the big sister," Flora read after. She brought it down to her lap and stared at Dani and Jamie. "I don't understand. I'm the little sister."
They two sat in silence, puzzled. Flora picked it back up and read the shirt again just to make sure she had read it right the first time. After a minute, it was clear they weren't putting it together.
"I blame you," Jamie said and sipped her hot chocolate. "You were their teacher for six months after all, Poppins."
Dani sent her wife side-eye. "Flora, do you remember your Christmas wish from last year?"
Flora nodded and then managed to put the pieces together. Excitement burst from her eyes. "Really?" She cried. "Wow, Miles we're going to have a baby sister."
"Oh," Dani said. "We don't know the sex of the baby just yet. It's too soon."
The young girl's eyes grew serious and she made eye contact with her mom. "It's a girl. I know because I had a dream about it."
"Okay, then," Jamie muttered. She shared a look with Dani that Dani recognized from their time at Bly. Whenever one of the two kids acted stranger than normal, that was the look Dani saw on Jamie's face.
Miles carefully folded his shirt. "Well, I think it's going to be a boy. There's too many girls in this house as it is."
"What am I, chopped meat?" Owen cried.
"You're different," Miles said.
Owen feigned a gasp, "So, I'm chopped vegetables, then, am I?" The boy grabbed some crumpled wrapping paper and threw it at Owen.
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